CHAPTER L.

THE ATLANTA (GEORGIA) CAMPAIGN.

May 1- September 8, 1864.

PART I.*

GENERAL REPORTS.

Report of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, U. S. Army, commanding, Armies of the United States, of operations March, 1864-May, 1865.

HEADQUARTERS ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES, Washington, D. C., July 22, 1865.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the armies of the United States from the date of my appointment to command the same:

From an early period in the rebellion I had been impressed with the idea that active and continuous operations of all the troops that could be brought into the field, regardless of season and weather, were necessary to a speedy termination of the war. The resources of the enemy and his numerical strength were far inferior to ours, but as an offset to this we had a vast territory, with a population hostile to the Government, to garrison, and long lines of river and railroad communications to protect, to enable to supply the operating armies.

The armies in the East and West acted independently and without concert, like a balky team, no two ever pulling together, enabling the enemy to use to great advantage his interior lines of communication for transporting troops from east to west, re-enforcing the army most vigorously pressed, and to furlough large numbers, during seasons of inactivity on our part, to go to their homes and do the work of producing for the support of their armies. It was a question whether our numerical strength and resources were not more than balanced by these disadvantages and the enemy's superior position.

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*Embraces reports of the lieutenant-general commanding the armies of the United States, the general and general staff of the Military Division of the Mississippi, the Army of the Cumberland, and the Fourth and Fourteenth Army Corps; the Twentieth Corps and cavalry (Army of the Cumberland) and Twenty-third Corps and Cavalry (Army of the Ohio), will appear in Part II; the Army of the Tennessee (consisting of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Corps), and the Confederate Army, are embraced in Part III.

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1 R R-VOL XXXVIII, PT I